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We are proud to announce NNLM Region 2’s 2023 Student Development Awardees, Melissa Rice from University of South Florida (left) and Kaitlyn Ritacca from University of Tennessee-Knoxville (right). These budding information professionals will spend this summer working with our staff, meeting with library leadership, and preparing MLA chapter conference presentations. Please join us in congratulating and welcoming them!
Kaitlyn Ritacca is the Senior Reference Services Specialist at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Health Sciences Library in Memphis. She is in her second year of the Master of Science in Information Sciences (MSIS) program at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville with an anticipated graduation date of May 2024. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Minnesota, which she received in 2019. Upon graduating, she hopes to pursue a career as a health sciences librarian, either in an assessment or user services position. For the SCC/SCMLA Joint Annual Meeting, she is most excited about attending a professional conference for the first time and meeting other health sciences librarians from across the two regions.
Melissa Rice will receive her MLIS from the School of Information at the University of South Florida in May 2024. She has more than twenty years of experience in regulatory and standards information and certification, mainly in healthcare information technology and medical devices. She is a teaching assistant in the USF School of Information for two undergraduate courses: Introduction to Health Informatics and Electronic Health Records Fundamentals. Her academic interests include health informatics, health literacy, and social determinants of health. Outside of her academic work, Melissa likes to build Legos, read, travel, and write.
Kaitlyn and Melissa will join the Student Development Award winners from Region 3 in presenting on NLM resources at the SC/SCMLA meeting in September. Kaitlyn will be presenting on MyNCBI, and Melissa’s presentation will be on NLM’s History of Medicine database. The goal of this program is to introduce the future LIS workforce to the health sciences, trusted National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources, and develop their professional skills. With coaching from a talented NNLM professional, each awardee will deliver a brief presentation on an NLM resource or NNLM priority during the joint chapter meeting of South Central Chapter and Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association, September 21-25, 2023 in New Orleans, LA.